Monday, October 18, 2010

SECRETARIAT

Review: Secretariat2.5 stars (out of 5)
By R. Kurt Osenlund

Oscar Wilde wrote something to the effect of, “what was good enough for our fathers isn't good enough for us.” It's a line I've been thinking about a lot lately, and it's as good a place as any to start when discussing the problems with “Secretariat,” a beautifully made movie that's unfortunately so precious and archaic it leaves you feeling like you're floating on a cloud of mothballs. At first glance, the film, directed by Randall Wallace and written by Mike Rich, looks like “Seabiscuit” meets “The Blind Side,” and that's about right. Featuring Brady-Bunch family dynamics, broad comic tics, Magical Negroes and religious elements that creep up like Jehovah's Witnesses at your doorstep, it's the sort of bizarrely conservative entertainment that may still have an audience, but feels unwelcomely transplanted from the youth of our fathers, or even our grandfathers.